I kicked off my Great Summer Road Trip 2024 Extravaganza by hiking the River Trail to Thousand Island Lake in the Sierra Nevadas. It's a pack trail so it has an even grade, it's fairly smooth, but there are also mule artifacts to be dodged.
I hadn't called ahead (of course) to inquire about access, I'd just done a basic search online. It turned out that the road there was being worked on. I managed to sneak in by following work trucks. I was then told by the driver of the pilot car that I could only leave at a set time, so I didn't dawdle at the lake. In fact, thanks to the trail being smooth, I was able to jog back a good part of it and I made it back well before the time limit. The pilot car driver was cool about all of this, otherwise I probably would have needed to camp out until the next day.
Afterwards, I then drove to Elko Nevada, so it was a bit of a long day.
TODO: come back and climb Banner & Ritter Peaks.
